Blogger Reads Obama Signals, Decides Kagan Will Get High Court Nod

Did a newspaper story earlier this week send a signal that President Obama may not name a Hispanic to the U.S. Supreme Court when he makes his first appointment?

A writer for the Washington Post’s PostPartisan blog thinks so, and uses the clue to proclaim Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the obvious choice.

The blog points to this quote from the earlier Washington Post story: “White House officials believe that Obama may get at least two more appointments. … He could appoint a woman this time, the thinking goes, and appoint a Latino or Latina later.”

The blogger decides the signal means U.S. Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor won’t get the nod. Kagan is instead the likely choice, the blog says, because 61 senators already voted to confirm her as solicitor general, and they will be hard-pressed to change their vote if she is nominated for the Supreme Court. The former Harvard law dean is also young, at 49, very smart and skilled at encouraging collegiality.

“She thus fits a highly favored Obama category: She’s a progressive who works well with those on the other side of politics,” according to the blog post. “That would also help make her a persuasive member of the court in building progressive majorities—and in tempering conservative majorities.”